And it looks as if it worked: An applicant called Williamsburg Vegan Corp. is on the April CB3/SLA committee agenda for a full liquor license. At this point we don't know anything about the applicant (CB3 hasn't filed the questionnaire with more background just yet.)
Williamsburg Vegan Corp. was on the CB1 docket out in Brooklyn earlier this year for a space at 280 Bedford. (We'll see if any of our Brooklyn friends know more about this.)
Hanjoo, which opened here between Second Avenue and Third Avenue in October 2012, closed last month. Han Joo's owners have designs on a new space on East Sixth Street.
No. 12 has also been home to a number of bars-restaurants in recent years, including Hirai Mong, Gama, San Marcos, Siren and @Cafe.
In case you missed this from The Wall Street Journal yesterday ... New York state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is investigating the financial decisions that led Cooper Union officials to charge undergraduate tuition for the first time in its history.
The probe includes a look at several decisions by Cooper Union’s past and present trustees, according to people familiar with the investigation. Among them: a $175 million loan, using the Chrysler building as collateral, to help finance more than $100 million in new Greenwich Village facilities, the people said.
Mr. Schneiderman’s office is also reviewing the terms of the school’s lease agreement at the Midtown skyscraper with real-estate company Tishman Speyer, a bonus that the board approved for former President George Campbell Jr. and potential inaccuracies about the board’s financial decisions on the school’s official website, the people said.
A Cooper Union spokesperson told the Journal that school officials are fully cooperating with Schneiderman's office.
You have until the end of next month to visit Lan Cafe, the cozy Vietnamese vegan restaurant at 342 E. Sixth St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue.
An EVG reader and Lan regular first told us about the coming closure at the end of April. A Nguyen family member confirmed it for us. The lease is up, and well — you know the rest. (Also, despite the posted 2 p.m. time during the week, Lan doesn't open until 5 p.m.)
A reader shared a photo from across the street showing how the work is progressing...
Local elected officials and preservationists spoke out against these additions... fearful of how the extra floor will change the character of the buildings.
The buildings were previously owned by Icon Realty, who sold them to Jared Kushner's Kushner Companies in the spring of 2013. The push, and subsequent approval, for the extra floor came about during Icon's ownership.
Crews have been busy coming and going from the building's back entrance on East Seventh Street between Avenue A and First Avenue, where two high-powered CAT generators have been stationed since March 19. According to a security guard, the event is for Dom Pérignon tomorrow night.
All told, the party-related activities at the Brant building, which has been cast in a pinkish glow inside the last few nights, will last 11 days, per the signs posted on the building at 421 E. Sixth St.
Several neighbors have grumbled about all this, from 11 days of reserved parking on the street to the often-noisy generators.
A few commenters to our post on Monday thought we should all just mind our own business.
He's probably having some kind of celebration / party in his new space. People need to get lives and mind their business. Now the guy is getting written up on blogs?
And!
Peter Brant is bringing much-needed class and sophistication to this neighborhood. If you want your squats back move to Detroit. Echoing the previous commenter: get lives just because you can't afford champagne!
Some of these comments prompted a resident on East Seventh Street "to demonstrate what a racket they're making."
To the reader: "I'm excited Brant has taken over the space and I'm sure he'll do lovely things for the community, but those babies are loud! I live right in front of where [the generators are] parked and it's very loud up here on the uppers floors. I'm attaching a video of the noise the trucks make — this might set straight some of the commenters who think this is an overreaction!"
We just noticed the other day that the Figaro Cafe Bistro Bar & Grill on First Avenue and East Sixth Street… is now going by La Esquina Bar & Grill…
… with a new taco-and-burrito-friendly menu…
One EVG reader suggested that this might be an offshoot of the Kenmare Street hotspots — La Esquina Taqueria and Cafe/La Esquina Brasserie & Tequila Bar.
So we called La Esquina. No, they have not (quietly) expanded to the East Village. Apparently the Figaro owners are just chaining up the concept.
Figaro opened in January 2014, taking over the space from Banjara. In November, Figaro split up the space, with Apna Masala opening on the East Sixth Street side.
One day you are on top of the world, conjoined atop a trophy for like ballroom dancing or something… then 15 years pass, and you're in the trash near Veniero's on East 11th Street…
Today is the official commemoration of the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, which claimed the lives of 146 workers, most of whom were young women from the Lower East Side.
Once again, volunteers wrote the names of the victims in front of places they lived.
